--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-06' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-02-20' is_meditation: false mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12970/20210220-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-mindfulness_of_breathing_37_skilled_in_tension_to_be_free_of_tension.mp3 section_slug: mindfulness-of-breathing-37-skilled-in-tension-to-be-free-of-tension speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Mindfulness of Breathing (37) Skilled in Tension to be Free of Tension url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12970 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: N23z7oJ_-f8 imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Mindfulness of Breathing (37) Skilled in Tension' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N23z7oJ_-f8 --- # Mindfulness of Breathing (37) Skilled in Tension to be Free of Tension - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [Mindfulness of Breathing (37) Skilled in Tension to be Free of Tension](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12970) In doing this Buddhist path, doing meditation practice, it's certainly helpful to relax. It helps to calm the places that are over-activated, to relax the places that are overly tense, and to bring tranquility to the ways in which we're anxious or agitated. Sometimes, the emphasis is entirely on the relaxation and the calming. But one of the things that's very important to develop on this path of practice is a skill, a heightened sensitivity to the tension, to the agitation, and to the ways in which we get tense. The reason for that is that we want to become skilled at it; we want to be able to recognize it well and clearly so that it becomes something we pick up early as it begins, or so that we become more aware of the more subtle ways in which we get caught and cling. If we're only focusing on the relaxation and the calm, we might not become experts at perceiving tension[^1]. Now, all the tensions we feel in the body—maybe I shouldn't say _all_, but most of it—probably represent some way that the mind is clinging to something. It's fixated on something; it's pushing on something in the mind. Much of the physical tension that we have represents something deeper in the mind. The surface tensions of the mind that we might feel when we're really anxious, upset, or tense around something also probably represent some deeper place of holding, clinging, and attachment. So, even though we may be talking about physical relaxation, what we're relaxing is something that has its source deep in the mind: the clinging in the mind. The idea is to start becoming more sensitive to clinging and to tension. That has many benefits. One is that it can help us go further and deeper into practice because we've gotten familiar with all the little ways that clinging appears in our body, mind, and heart. But it's also a protection for ourselves. It protects our practice because it's very easy to practice with tension and attachment without seeing it. Paradoxically, a person could get the instruction, "just relax your tension," and they get so serious about relaxing that they tense up around it. "Let's do this well. The teacher says to relax, and by golly, I'm going to relax. I'm going to be the best relaxer anywhere." Then we certainly relax part of the body, but the mind has gotten tense in the effort to push. With any instruction people get in practice, we can get attached to the instruction. We get attached to wanting a specific idea of what might happen in practice to happen. Or we get attached through a kind of negative clinging: "Oh, that's not happening to me, it's not possible for me, that doesn't relate to me, or that's not right." This tension is holding on in a way that limits our freedom. If we start becoming skilled at recognizing tension, then we recognize the very tension that's involved in how we practice, what we're looking for, or what we're wanting to have happen in practice. It becomes a protection so that we're not ahead of ourselves, so that we're not trying to make something happen or expect something to happen that's not actually what is happening. The default is always to come back to what is happening. In doing that, again, we recognize maybe how we're tense. We recognize the pushing, the striving, or the contraction that might be there. Then, as we let go of that, there's an influence that has on us. Part of recognizing tension deeper and deeper is that we can recognize what is _not_ tension. We can recognize the impact letting go, softening, and relaxing has on us. We can recognize that there's more happening here than the tension. I've certainly had the experience of being so overly concerned with my tension in my body and mind, or overly concerned with something I'm supposed to do—like focus on the breathing—that I didn't notice the wider picture of what's going on. There was, in fact, some subtleness, some calmness, some peacefulness, and actually some very subtle delight in just being here. But I was so fixated and concerned with my preoccupation. This idea of relaxing and opening the attention allows us to feel the influence of relaxation and tranquility, to feel some of the other goodness that's here and some of the other things that are actually going well for us. As this Anapanasati[^2] deepens, we want to broaden the attention to take in the bigger picture as well of what's happening. The joy, the happiness of practice, and the contentment belong to this slightly bigger picture. It might be subtle, nothing dramatic. We might then get fixated and attached to having joy, attached to having happiness, or disappointed that we don't have it. That's tension. If we are skilled at looking at tension, we'll catch it right away so it doesn't trip us up. We can notice, "Oh, there's tension. Maybe rather than looking for joy, I should really spend time feeling that tension so it can relax and soften. Or let me not be limited by the tension; let me open up the attention wide, not in a fixated way, but in an open, relaxed way." As we open up, if we do feel some of the goodness of the relaxation and the practice that's occurring, I think of it as the atmosphere or the mood of a room. I've gone into some places and the atmosphere is clearly peaceful, and I feel like I'm being washed in peacefulness. I go into other social atmospheres and it immediately feels very tense. So, take in the atmosphere within us. Take in the atmosphere of the goodness, even if it's subtle, and breathe with that. This is not to deny other things or to lose our ability to notice when we get tense, tight, contracted, resistant, or express clinging in different ways. Rather, it is a way of creating a nice atmosphere that supports the further letting go of clinging. That gives us confidence and some sense of the rightness of the moment, as opposed to focusing on the wrongness of the moment—which is so easy to do. Some people are really experts at this. This is not to take a Pollyanna[^3] view that everything is good, but to create an atmosphere that allows us to hold and be with the difficulties in a way that we don't get fixated on them, cling to them, or resist them too tightly. So, all this is a way of saying that part of what we are doing in this practice is becoming an expert on tension. Even though the emphasis might be on relaxing, don't become tense because you're trying to relax or because you can't relax. Keep remembering that recognizing and learning to feel, sense, and become more of a connoisseur of all the different flavors and textures of tension, clinging, holding, and attachment is actually a very important part of the practice. You want to take some time to feel it and get to know it, not to be in a hurry to relax or get rid of anything that's uncomfortable. The lesson you learn by really feeling it fully is how to be prepared better for next time, how to catch it earlier, and how to protect yourself from being caught in it. Part of this Buddhist path is to become skilled in tension—not skilled in _tensing_, because we don't want to learn how to tense better, but skilled in recognizing tension and seeing it when it's there, sometimes almost when it's beginning. The last thing I'll say about this is the importance of not confusing tension with intentness. Sometimes there's an intentness that has a certain energy, engagement, and wholeheartedness. It doesn't have the quality of limitation or debilitation that tension or clinging has. It's really present. There can be an intentness of the body and an intentness of the mind: "I'm here, this is what I'm doing, I'm involved in this." But there's no tension; there's maybe a tautness, but no contraction or tenseness. Sometimes when people hear "relax," they relax their intentness. They relax their healthy tautness and move towards just becoming a slouch, becoming too limp to really let the vitality of practice operate. Certainly, relaxing, calming, and becoming tranquil and peaceful is a support for this practice. But don't overlook the important work of becoming skilled at recognizing tension. Maybe take some delight and satisfaction as you become more and more of a connoisseur of all the different ways that you're tense. Rather than being disappointed when you see it, say, "Oh, fantastic, I get to study this and get to know it better." It's not so pleasant right now to have the tension in and of itself, but in the long term, I'm much better off really becoming the student of tension before I focus too much on relaxing. So, thank you. ## Announcements Tomorrow morning as well, we'll have this 6:45 sitting and a little talk at 7:30. Tomorrow Diana Clark[^4] will lead it. She's my co-teacher for this retreat I'm teaching this week, and I'll take that early morning off. She'll come in and offer something for the sitting, and then we'll continue with this Anapanasati with step nine, moving forward on Monday. Thank you. --- [^1]: Original transcript said "attention," corrected to "tension" based on context. [^2]: **Anapanasati:** A Pali word meaning "mindfulness of breathing." It is a core meditation practice in Buddhism. [^3]: **Pollyanna:** A reference to the overly optimistic titular character of the 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter, used here to describe an unrealistic view that everything is always good. Original transcript said "polyanis". [^4]: **Diana Clark:** A dharma teacher at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) and the Insight Retreat Center (IRC).